AMAL – Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve today requested, in a statement, the «extension of the exemption from tolls [on Via do Infante] for residents, until the requalification works of the EN125 are completed».
The end of the exemption on September 30 was announced today by the Secretary of State for Public Works, an announcement that motivated the «protest and displeasure» on the part of AMAL, chaired by the Social Democrat Macário Correia.
AMAL reaffirms that "there are no conditions to end the exemption from tolls on Via do Infante without the works on the EN125 being completed, as, as is generally known, this road has already been considered the deadliest in Europe."
In its statement, AMAL recalls that "traffic on the A22, which has already decreased by 60% in the first two months of this year, will decrease even more with the end of the toll exemption now announced."
The end of the exemption, stresses AMAL , “will aggravate the already difficult situation that municipalities, companies and the population of the Algarve are going through, and will certainly contribute to increasing the unemployment rate, which is the highest in the country. ».
However, the Government also said today that the exemptions in Via do Infante will end because there is a community rule that prevents them from being revoked.
The mayor of Faro and also AMAL president, in statements to Antena1, he said he did not accept this justification, he spoke of apologies and regretted that the Government has stopped defending the populations and is limited to receiving orders from Brussels.
For his part, João Vasconcelos, from the Commission of Users of Via do Infante, said that the maintenance of tolls and the end of exemptions is "a disgrace for the Algarve". «Unemployment, which is already the highest in the country, will increase after the summer» and «accidents on the EN125, which are already constant every day, will increase».
Therefore, said João Vasconcelos, the Commission of Users demands "the immediate suspension of tolls and the resignation of the Government".
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